Rockford, MI—Wolverine World Wide Inc. today reported that its third quarter net earnings grew 66% boosted by contribution of the Collective Brands’ footwear business it bought last year.

For the quarter ended Sept. 7, the footwear company posted earnings of $54.4 million, or $1.08 a share, compared with a profit of $32.7 million, or 66 cents a share, a year earlier.

Excluding acquisition-related transaction and integration expenses in both years, earnings per share in the latest-quarter were $1.16, a 61.1% increase compared to 72 cents a share in the prior year’s third quarter. This beat analysts’ estimate for $1.02 a share.

The company said that figures included a full 12 weeks contribution from its October 2012 acquisition of the Sperry Top-Sider, Saucony, Stride Rite, and Keds brands.

Double Digit Growth in Most Brands

Net revenue rose 103% to $716.7 million, ahead of analysts’ estimate for $712.94 million in sales.

Blake Krueger, chairman/ceo, said, “The power of the company’s 16-brand portfolio, combined with strong execution of growth strategies by our team, led to an outstanding quarter.”

Double-digit growth occurred across most of its brands including Merrell, Sperry Top-Sider, Saucony, Keds, Chaco and Cushe.

By division, sales from the Lifestyle Group were up 678.4%, Performance Group revenues rose 67%, and Heritage Group sales edged up 0.8% from last year.

Production costs doubled to $430.7 million, while selling, general and administrative expenses more than doubled to $192.3 million.

Looking ahead to its full fiscal year results, Wolverine now expects adjusted earnings per share to be in the range of $2.73 to $2.83 a share, up from the previous outlook of $2.60 to $2.75 a share.

Sales for the year are now expected to hit between $2.71 billion and $2.73 billion, representing growth in the range of 6.4% to 7.1% compared to prior year pro forma revenue of $2.55 billion. Earlier, the company forecast revenues of $2.7 billion to $2.775 billion.

Analysts’ average estimate expects earnings of $2.80 a share on revenues of $2.73 billion for the year.

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Jeff Prine, Editor at Large, Accessories Magazine
Jeff returns as a regular contributor to Accessories magazine. Initially Jeff worked as senior editor at Accessories more than 20 years ago and his love of the industry has followed him until present. Since his tenure here, Jeff has continued to report jewelry, watch and other luxury goods trends as executive editor at Modern Jeweler magazine, fashion director at Lustre, and as contributor on products and trends for consumer and trade publications and websites. In addition to his editorial experience, Jeff also served as an adjunct instructor for accessories merchandising at Fashion Institute of Technology. jeffp@busjour.com